New England Liberal Arts Colleges

Hi everyone!

Recently, my parents told me that it is highly unlikely we would be able to afford the school I am currently looking at. I’m very upset, but I figured I should probably start looking for other colleges… I mainly need help with finding good liberal arts in the New England area that are strong in medicine/biology. I don’t want to go pre-med, but having a strong pre-med program would provide opportunities that line up with my interests. I also am interested in schools that are fairly urban, but if they are near a city, that could work too.

Please don’t mention the standard Ivies, as I obviously already know of those.

Thank you!!

  • Crushed Junior

Why in the NE area? It’s likely you won’t find any others significantly less expensive. Have you asked what your parents can pay? What are your stats?

I used to live up there, and I’m comfortable with the area. I don’t want to stay in-state, and New England also has very close family friends I can use for support. The rejected price was $60,000, but my parents are comfortable with paying something below that (e.g. $59,000), and I can obviously get scholarships.

I’m unsure what specific stats you’re asking for, but this is what comes to my mind:
ACT: 34
GPA: 4.00 (unweighted) 4.542 (weighted)
SAT Subject: Biology M - 730, Chemistry - 580 (I’m not submitting that one, and I’m taking 3 more)

I don’t know if you want any AP scores or a PSAT score (I’m about to take it for the final time this year).

OK. SO a $60K school is a no go but $59K is okay? I’m confused.

Will your family qualify for need based aid or are you looking for merit scholarships? Most LACs in the northeast have a $60K+ sticker price these days absent merit or need based aid.

Also, LACs don’t really offer pre-med majors. You pick another major and do a premed track taking certain coursework to prepare you for applying to medical school.

Let us know more about your financial situation and I’m sure we can recommend some suitable schools.

Yeah, I don’t quite get it either. They probably just needed to draw a line and say that they won’t go over it.
Financial aid is the tricky part. I definitely will be applying for merit scholarships, but financial aid will depend on how deep the application goes. On the surface, we look fine, but we have some debt that would hopefully get us some aid.
Also, I don’t want to take pre-med. I’m focused more on biology, but I like the medical aspects of it, so a school with a good medicine program (grad or undergrad) would hopefully give me lots of opportunities for internships.

I think you need to figure out EXACTLY how much they will contribute per year. Then yo can target what kind of gap you need to fill via student loans and merit aid.

Are you male or female? I don’t want to make assumptions based on your name.

Would you look in the northeast but not New England e.g. states like PA?

I’m still confused about the pre-med thing. So you have no interest in being a doctor but like medical stuff and biology? When you talk about internships are you talking more research based or more patient oriented?

Have you run any net price calculators? At your dream school or others? If not, please do or ask your parent to so do. Know that debt will not impact your aid eligibility. Colleges will look at income and assets, they don’t care about debt.

Running some will give you an idea of how your data will be interpreted and if you qualify for any merit or need based aid. They will not always show all merit and are estimates only buy are a very good starting place.

Dickinson gives a fair amount of merit aid. They do care about showing interest, so be sure to do that if you apply. They also have an EA option, and getting in the EA pool is a sign of interest in itself.

What do you expect to do with your degree? An undergraduate bio degree is not a very marketable degree – there are gobs of them who planned on med school but did it get in.

Okay… I’m going to answer the all the questions as I read them.

I’m female.
I could look at states at Pennsylvania, as it’s not too far from the area I like.
I’m interested in research with biology and medicine, not any job that would be reached through pre-med. For example, I currently have an interest in genetics, but I would want to do research with that, and not treat symptoms of genetic mutations.
I can ask them to run a financial aid calculator tonight.
I don’t necessarily want a biology degree, as there could be other programs available based upon the school (e.g. Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, etc.). I would want to use it for research, as I mentioned above…

I think I got everything.

Take a look at Mount Holyoke. Your stats may qualify you for merit there, and they have an excellent Biology department.

Check and see if Clark Univ in MA has what you’re looking for. I think they might offer merit aid.

Some safety options: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

Other options based on your stats: http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

The midwest or south tend to have the best pricing for colleges.

Debt generally doesn’t play into FA. It’s mostly based on income and assets.

look at the college of new jersey TCNJ
located near princeton,close to philly
good sciences

Curious, what was your dream school in the NE that is too expensive??

Also, when you said ‘urban but near a city would work’, urban is city. Regardless, if price is a concern than you may want to look at some of the state schools/colleges. Two come to mind are UNH (University of New Hampshire) and UVM (University of Vermont). Good price, good bio sciences and that quintessential Liberal Arts campus. Your stats look great, so you do have a chance for merit to almost any school you apply to. Don’t forget to look and apply for private scholarships while you have time. Good luck.

If merit awards (scholarships) are one way you anticipate paying for college, then you need to identify schools which give merit awards, and for what level of achievements. Many to most of the most selective New England (and Middle Atlantic) liberal arts colleges do not give merit-based awards, only financial need. So, the NESCAC schools (Tufts, Williams, Amherst, Trinity, Conn, Bates etc) do not give merit awards. Haverford, Swarthmore, Vassar, Franklin & Marshall do not give merit awards.

The women’s colleges – Mt Holyoke and Bryn Mawr – do give merit awards. Dickinson in PA (in between Philly and Pittsburgh) gives up to about $22,000 a year in merit to high achieving students. St Lawrence in upstate (very upstate) NY also gives generous merit awards.

I believe Gettysburg gives merit awards, but I may be mis-remembering about that. It came off my kid’s list, but I can’t recall if it was because of lack of merit awards or something else. Other schools with more of a STEM (and business) orientation include Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh, though I don’t recall their merit policies.

You can research specific schools’ merit awards by googling the school name and “common data set” and look at the Financial AId section, Section H, under the “Non-Need Based Scholarships and Grants” – that will tell you how much of the entering class received merit awards and the average amount. You can look at the Admissions section, Section C, to see where your gpa/test scores put you in terms of their admitted students – to receive merit award, the general rule of thumb is that a student must be in at least the top 25% of the admitted class.

In finding other schools, consider the characteristics of your “dream” school that are most important to you – whether those include strength in specific departments, type of distribution requirements, greek life, athletics etc – whatever they may be. Then, you can look for schools which overlap with those characteristics but may be more affordable.

Most of the east coast LACs cost $60-65k this year for tuition and room and board. For a full pay family, the way to reduce the cost is to (1) get merit award and/or (2) identify schools with lower list price. Schools in the midwest and south may give more merit awards in order to draw students from outside the region, and some have lower tuition and room and board to start with. For instance, Denison, about 30 minutes east of Columbus, Ohio, gives generous merit awards and tuition and room and board is around $60 this year. Lawrence University, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Knox and Wooster all have somewhat lower costs (tuition in the range of $45 and room and board often under $10k, so the full price is already under $55). Plus, they give generous merit awards to high achieving students. Centre College and Rhodes College also give good merit awards, and I recall Centre’s tuition is lower than east coast schools.

Grinnell, in Iowa, is a top liberal arts college with excellent science and undergrad research. It does give merit, but not nearly as often as other midwest schools (and it is not located near a city). Many people think that if Grinnell were in PA, CT, MA rather than Iowa, it would be a top 5-10 ranked school. While I realize that Iowa is way off your geographic preference, the idea is to consider what are the most important factors in your search and identify other schools that meet those preferences. You may find that the geographic scope can be pushed a little, for the right school. Or you may decide that geography is non-negotiable.

I think with your strong stats, you should look for some merit aid.

Women’s colleges provide a top notch education with easier admissions chances than coed schools and some provide good merit aid. In addition to Mt. Holyoke already mentioned, consider Bryn Mawr and Smith. Both are good in sciences in addition to the humanities and social sciences, both are part of a consortium where you can take classes on other nearby campuses. Bryn Mawr is 15 minutes by commuter train from Philly so you might like that location. Philly has great restaurants, music venues, a vibrant art scene.

University of Vermont and New Hampshire are good suggestions as well.

Some other smaller colleges offering merit aid include Clark, St. Lawrence, Dickinson.

Merit aid is harder to come by in the Northeast than in other regions like the Midwest.

Add Smith to the list of women’s colleges giving merit awards. Mount Holyoke and Smith (both in western MA) and Bryn Mawr (in eastern PA) are all worth considering.

Providence College in RI would be worth a look, you might get some decent merit, it is a nice LAC with good science programs.

It actually wasn’t in New England. It was UChicago, and it was an exception for my preference for New England.